June is a time of transitions in the Philippines. It signals the end of summer and the start of the school year. It’s the month when we declared our independence from colonial rule. It is the halfway point to a year that was hopefully good and is just about to get better.
So how to cope with this high-stress period of mid-year, when everything – from school starting to mid-year office reviews to higher-volume traffic turns your comfortable home ground into a battleground?
Start by taking the year not as halfway done, but halfway there. With this glass half-full perspective, it’s a great time to create new habits and start refreshed – after all, there’s six more months to go before we start anew.
Take time to relax. If you took the first half of the year at breakneck speed, accumulating leaves and not taking any sick days, then you’ve banked enough goodwill to take a break. School just starting? Read ahead and be ready. Don’t stress out just as the year begins. There will be plenty of time to do that between now and exam time.
Get off the beaten path. Bored with the same old day-in-, day-out monotony? Get ready to break out and do small things to spice things up. Change your route going to work or school, find a new hangout to unwind, even learn a new song for the monthly videoke session.
